£690.4 Thousand
$1.4 Million
$0This weekend, Friday 1st September 2023, there are 6 new films released in North America and where available looking to hit the box office chart, but can they challenge last weekends top movie, Gran Turismo, for the number 1 spot?
Check out other new releases from around the world.
Here are this weeks new releasesCheck back on Monday to see what new movies made it onto the Weekend Box Office Chart.
Star Wars fans around the world have their opinion of what is the best lightsaber battle in the Star Wars Universe.
Here is a list of what is considered the best battles in the Star Wars Universe.
These battles are all unique and offer different elements, such as emotional stakes, intense action, and memorable choreography. Ultimately, the "best" lightsaber battle is subjective and varies depending on individual tastes and preferences, but on this Star Wars Day we present, for your pleasure, the Salty Popcorn best lightsaber battles (in reverse order).
There had been a Star Wars drought for a number of years (10) and with the buyout of Lucasfilms by Disney still fresh in everyones minds as well as the (at the time) a badly received prequel trilogy the fan base wanted a good Star Wars movie.
JJ Abrahams was put in charge of directing the film, a life long fan of the series, and he delivered in spades, bringing arguably the best Star Wars film to date.
We instantly took to the new characters of the Rebel Alliance with Rey and Finn and the First Order with Kylo Ren and the new Storm Troopers. Reys force powers were hinted at throughout the movie and a dual between the two was inevitable, and at the end of the film Abrahams delivered, set within a forest of the Star Killer Base while the planet explodes around them.
We knew Yoda was a Jedi Master and that he had fought in the Clone Wars that started during the second part of prequel trilogy, and George Lucas knew he had to deliver.
As Yoda walks into the hanger where Count Dooku was trying to board his ship you simply knew what was about to happen, and as he pulls across his robes to reveal a small lightsaber this was the moment, he force pulls his weapon to his hand and turns it on.
The battle doesn't last long, but seeing the small green Jedi Master who usually finds it hard to walk bouncing around the walls during the fight is a joy.
The original movie introduces us to the legendary weapon, something not really seen on the big screen before but through the stories Ben Kenobi tells Luke during the movie we know that the weapon is elegant and the Jedi are lethal with it.
We also believe at this time that Darth Vader is the arch enemy of Ben Kenobi, and by the end of the movie there has to be a meeting of the two, and while trying to escape the Death Star the two come face to face.
Despite the lack of technological abilities in special effects at the time this thrilled fans of a generation and when the inevitable happens at the end we are shocked at the loss of our new hero.
This battle comes as no surprise, we have seen Luke go through the training, and go off to rescue his friends, and we get the foreshadowing of things to come on Dagobah.
When Luke goes into the carbon freeze chamber and the two enemies ignite their Sabers in silhouette we get the almighty battle between the two enemies.
The style and technology used in this film is so much greater than that of the original Star Wars that it feels fresh and thrilling, and at the end of the battle we get one of cinemas greatest reveals, so good to this day it is celebrated as THE movie twist of all times.
The movie gets a lot of criticism, but over the last 20 years time has been kind and in the grander scheme of the saga the fan base is looking at this film more favourably, and it has the best lightsaber battle of all time.
It had been 16 years since we'd had any proper live action Star Wars to enjoy and despite the film not getting the critical reaction Lucas wanted the Dual Of Fates was spectacular.
The highlight is at the start of the battle as Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan face the Sith Lord Darth Maul, as the John Williams music 'Duel Of Fates' starts to get more intense Maul ignites a single blade on his lightsaber, then the money shot happens and another blade appears from the other side, every Star Wars Fan looked on in amazement as the incredible battle unfolds between the 3 warriors.
The only real shame is that, inevitably, Darth Maul dies at the end of the movie, although in quiet spectacular style, but with little screen time fans wanted more, although as seen in Solo: A Star Wars Story they have brought him back and who knows if he'll appear in another movie or not?
The animated video game adaptation The Super Mario Bros. Movie makes its debut at the top of the UK box office with a £15.6 Million debut.
Also making its debut is the new Ben Affleck directed Air at number 4 while The Popes Exorcist is new at number 5.
Further down the box office Godland makes £42,854 on its debut weekend.
Highest new movie this weekend
Video game adaptations have not historically made good movie adaptation, and the box office grosses have not been good, but Nintendos flagship character Mario looks set to change that as it makes its debut with £15.6 Million.
The movie has not been a big hit with critics but paying audiences have loved the animated movie and if it be the fan service or the love of the characters this is set to be one of the biggest movies of the year.
In comparison Sonic the Hedgehog from 2020 took £4.7 Million on its debut and Super Mario Bros from 1993 took £2.8 Million on release, £3.7 Million adjusted for inflation.
After making its debut at the top last weekend the board game adaptation falls to number 2 on its second weekend with a 54% drop.
The movie has taken £8.2 Million after 2 weeks of release.
The fourth chapter in the John Wick series is at number 3 this weekend with a £1.2 Million gross on its 3rd weekend of release.
Ben Affleck directs himself and Matt Damon in this movie based on the shoe made famous by basketball player Michael Jordan.
The new movie starring Russell Crowe lands at number 5 this weekend on the UK box office with a gross of £707,050.
A change at the top of the US box office chart as the third in the Creed series of movies, Creed III tops the US box office on its debut weekend.
Also new on the top 5 this weekend is Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba - To the Swordsmith Village at number 4 while the new Guy Ritchie movie Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre makes its debut at 7 with �3.1 Million while Indina movie RRR is new at 15 with an RRR Fan CelebRRRation which makes its debut with $197,003.
Highest new movie this weekend
The Creed franchise is now starting to get as many movies as the Rocky franchise which gave birth to it, but here we are with the third movie which makes an incredible debut with $58 Million.
The movie is directed by its star Micheal B. Jordan and with the film being well received by audiences a Creed IV may not be far behind, interestingly Rocky IV was one of that series most popular movies.
After a couple of weeks at the top the third in the Ant-Man series of movies falls to number 3 with a gross of $12.4 Million for the weekend.
The 'based on a true story' movie falls to number 3 this weekend after making its debut at number 2 with a weekend take of $11 Million, a large 52% drop.
Following on from the 2020 movie Demon Slayer The Movie: Mugen Train the latest movie in the series makes its US debut at 4 with $10 Million, half that of its predecessor.
The faith based movie has a decent second weekend on the US box office falling to number 5 with a 44% drop in weeeknd grosses for a total of $30 Million.
A new poster has been released for upcoming movie Minions: The Rise of Gru which can seen in full if you scroll down this page.
Synopsis for Minions: The Rise of Gru
It's the 1970s and a twelve year old Felonius Gru is growing up in your average suburbs. He is a fan of a supervillain supergroup known as the Vicious 6 and wants to join them and when they get rid of their leader, legendary fighter Wild Knuckles, Gru seizes the opportunity and goes for the vacant position. After Gru steals from them he becomes their enemy and the epitome of evil himself. Gru turns to Wild Knuckles for help and soon discovers he needs a little help himself from the little yellow men.
Check out the Salty Popcorn movie page for more information on this upcoming film.